Californian raids target 'maternity tourist' industry

Investigators from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided about 20 southern California locations on Tuesday to investigate "maternity tourists", mainly from China.

Maternity tourists are women who applied for tourist visas and entered the United States to give birth.

The raided locations are suspected of involvement in "maternity tourism" schemes providing travel, lodging and medical care to to the women, US immigration officials said.

The sweep was believed to mark the first such enforcement action against a growing cottage industry in the US in recent years that has operated largely out of sight of federal authorities, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations office in Los Angeles.

Authorities say the "maternity hotels" targeted in the sweep catered largely to wealthy women from China who paid $15,000 to $80,000, depending on services offered, in hopes of obtaining US citizenship for their children - children born in the US automatically have US citizenship.

ICE said in a statement that search warrants were served in the sweeps that began soon after the sunrise in Irvine, Rowland Heights and Walnut, cities that have large Chinese communities.

Immigration experts say there is nothing inherently illegal about women coming from abroad to give birth in the US.

But operators of the maternity hotels are suspected of obtaining non-immigrant US visitor visas under false pretenses, as well as engaging in tax fraud, money laundering and other offenses, according to ICE.

Tuesday morning's operation was designed to gather "further evidence related to a variety of possible criminal violations, including visa and tax fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy," authorities said.

Women found in the raids were to be interviewed as potential material witnesses, and were instructed where and when to report for questioning. No arrests were anticipated, authorities said.

Businesses engaged in maternity tourism rely on websites, newspaper advertising and social media to promote their services, immigration officials said.

As part of the package, clients were promised they would receive Social Security numbers and US passports for their infants, officials said, documentation the mothers would take with them when they returned to their home countries.

Once the children reach adulthood, they could seek US visas for relatives living abroad.

More expensive packages include recreational activities, such as visits to Disneyland and shopping malls, ICE said.

Immigration officials say they believe thousands of Chinese women have been traveling to the US using temporary visitor visas for the sole purpose of giving birth.